An LA Daily News columnist gives thanks for a group of Catholic sisters after taking shelter from the Woolsey fire

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Los Angeles Daily News Columnist Dennis McCarthy is surrounded by retired Sisters of St. Louis on the grounds of Louisville High School, where he and his wife evacuated to during the Woolsey Fire.(photo by Andy Holzman)

The dinner bell rings at 5:30 p.m. and the retired Sisters of St. Louis slowly make their way from their rooms on the grounds of Louisville High School in Woodland Hills to the dining room where they will have two surprise guests this evening – my wife and me.

We’ve been evacuated from our Agoura Hills home, and I’ve just returned from a three-hour trip that usually takes 30 minutes getting my 91-year-old parents safely back in their Newbury Park mobile home – in the care of my brother – after the evacuation order was lifted there.

I’m beat, emotionally drained worrying about them, and the fire that’s just jumped the 101 freeway at my off ramp – putting my home a short par 3 from a swirling inferno.

If the howling winds blow just a little east, my home’s toast. If they blow a little west, some poor other guy’s home is toast. Flip a coin.

The sisters have already blessed the food as I sit down at the dinner table and hear three of the most inspiring words a man in need of relief could hear.

“Red or white?”

“Excuse me, sister?”

“Red wine or white wine?”

“White, please.” And bless you, sister. How did you know?

Since we are considered “a special occasion,” a wee bit of the grape is available. I’ve always thought the women of the Catholic church were a lot wiser than the men, and our four-day stay with the Irish Sisters of St. Louis did nothing to change that.

After saying their prayers for everyone in the path of the devastating fires, they welcomed us with open arms. We sang Irish ballads, told stories out of school, and a few of the sisters, who shall remain anonymous, even enjoyed a glass of white with me, but most had sparkling cider.

The invitation was extended by my cousin, Sister Margaret Mary Buttitta – Margie to the family – who devoted 38 of her 73 years on this earth to educating and enlightening women and children living in poverty in small villages and big cities in Brazil. Then she came home to do the same in South Central Los Angeles with LAMP – Los Angeles Ministry Project – which empowers families through education.

She was in the first graduating class of Louisville High in 1964, and is now the official archivist for her small order while also watching over the sisters, all of them Irish, and former school teachers and principals.

They all have strong feelings about issues concerning the church and the country, and they’re not shy about expressing them. But our nights together at the dinner table were more about song and laughter – a much needed respite from the devastation going on only a few miles away.

“My motto has always been attitude and gratitude,” says Sister Maria Goretti Crowley, who breaks out into a chorus of “Cockles and Muscles,” the traditional Irish ballad of Molly Malone from Sister Crowley’s hometown of Dublin.

She taught both elementary and high school in California for 57 years, and served as a volunteer counselor at Louisville. Sisters Rita McCormack, Monica Quigley, Julie Conole, Margaret Fitzer, Alice Keenan, Bridget Clare McKeever, Alicia McNally, Nuala Ryan, Noreen O’Riordan, and Una Connolly all have similar backgrounds.

As the sisters sing, cook Noel Elenia prepares dessert in the kitchen. He was personal chef to the Betsy Bloomingdale family for seven years before the department store heiress died in 2016, and he was offered jobs at some of the top restaurants and hotels in Los Angeles.

He chose the Sisters of St Louis. It certainly wasn’t for the money or fame. It was for moments like this, he says.

“In my heart, I know this is where I belong, serving these sisters who have dedicated their lives to helping and educating the poor,” Elenia says.

Amen. So, thank you Sisters of St. Louis for all the love and compassion your small order has given the world, and for sharing your dinner table with a couple of evacuees who desperately needed your wit, wisdom, and that glass of white wine.

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